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Disrupting the Default:
Race, Inclusion, and Research Cultures

Brookfield Campus, University of Leicester | 09:30-16:30, Friday 24 April 2026

2026 marks ten years since the official launch of Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter. Great strides have been made to identify and address the barriers facing staff and students from Global Majority backgrounds, but much work remains to be done.

This free one-day conference at the University of Leicester focuses on the barriers facing Global Majority staff and postgraduate researchers within higher education institutions. It asks how the research culture (the values, behaviours, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities) can be improved to create more inclusive research environments.

Book your place to be part of this important conversation.

Conference programme

Download a copy of the conference programme.

Venue and accessibility

The conference is taking place at the University of Leicester’s Brookfield Campus on London Road. Please enter Brookfield House via the accessible entrance opposite the Mary Seacole building. A map of the site is available in the conference programme.

Information on the venue’s accessibility is available on the AccessAble website. The venue has a prayer room and a quiet room will be provided on the day. Please let us know of any additional access requirements using the booking form or by emailing us.

Directions

The number 31 and 31A Arriva buses go straight from Leicester Railway Station to Brookfield. Alight at the Elmfield Avenue stop. Parking, including Blue Badge spaces, is available on site via Holmfield Road. If you require parking, please include this in your booking under ‘access requirements’.

Hotels and restaurants

There are plenty of hotels within walking or wheeling distance of the University, including the Belmont Hotel on New Walk, and Premier Inn and Hotel Ibis near Leicester Railway Station. These hotels are also on the route of the number 31/31A buses. More information on accommodation can be found on the Visit Leicester website.

If you arrive in Leicester the night before the conference or want somewhere to eat afterwards, London Road (towards the train station) has restaurants serving a wide range of cuisines, including Indian, Nepalese, Italian, Chinese, Uyghur, Japanese, and pub restaurants. Queens Road, in Clarendon Park, also has a range of small independent cafes and restaurants as well as bars. The City Centre includes a variety of independent and chain restaurants. More information can be found on the Visit Leicester website.

Attendance Bursaries

We are pleased to be able to offer a small number of Attendance Bursaries for postgraduate researchers, unwaged researchers, researchers based in low- and middle-income countries, and researchers with caring responsibilities which might otherwise prevent them from attending. Please note, these bursaries are only available for delegates attending in person. The postgraduate bursaries are intended to support postgraduate researchers who do not have access to institutional funding.

If you would like to apply for an Attendance Bursary, please fill out this form. If you have any questions about these bursaries, please contact the I-REACCH team.

Reparative Rest Bursaries

We are pleased to be able to offer up to 15 Reparative Rest Bursaries of £100 each. These bursaries are offered in acknowledgement that, due to structural inequalities, not everyone experiences the research environment in the same way and are influenced by the work of Studio Susegad and we thank them for allowing us to adapt their wording below.

When an attendee with a lived experience of discrimination participates in or administers research, or attends a related event such as this conference, they might have to:

  • represent their lived experience to a group;
  • manage the emotional impact of their personal experiences of inequality;
  • face a lack of understanding from other participants.

Attendees with lived experience of inequality may also face exclusionary behaviours elsewhere—in their work or in their personal life—that their peers do not.

We invite you to self-identify if you think that this bursary applies to you – for example because of (and not limited to) race, gender expression or disability. There is no requirement to cost out or ‘prove’ need.

Examples of reasons you might self-identify include:

  • You are working on a project where the themes being explored intersect with your lived experience.
  • You experience exclusionary behaviours at work from colleagues, supervisors or project participants based on your lived experience.
  • Events in the wider world are mentally, physically or emotionally traumatising because of your lived experience.

We acknowledge that this offer may not be taken up by some people who are eligible because of the way marginalisation and exclusion operate and is internalised, and this is something we are trying to mitigate in our communications and address head on in our invitations to you. We also acknowledge that we might not be able to provide bursaries for everyone who applies and will work to ensure the conference is as inclusive as possible.

If you would like to apply for a Reparative Rest Bursary, please fill out this form. If you have any questions about these bursaries, please contact the I-REACCH team.